Passports and St. Petersburg

[Phoenix cruiser]

I have seen previous discussion about Oceana taking everyone's passports upon embarkation but have not seen this particular issue addressed. Upon arrival in St. Petersburg to take a tour with Red October or DenRus, I understand you need their ticket/visa they send PLUS your passport. Has anyone had issues with Oceana returning your passport just for that first day in St. Pete?

[peggyann]

Yes, this was in issue for us on the June 1 cruise. We were a group of 6 who were very concerned because the ship had the passports. We went to the reception desk and spoke to the Purser I think a few days before we were to arrive in St Pete. We were assured that we would have access to the passports very early on arrival. This did not satisfy me because we wanted to get off the ship asap upon arrival. And who knows what "very early" meant.Or where they were going to give them out. We kept checking the staus of the passport returns. The desk was pretty vague and we were concerned.

 

This became a big issue because the destination services guy had made disparaging remarks about Red October during a public port talk. And we all (who had signed up for RO) were afraid that they would keep us from leaving the ship till all the ship's tours were disembarked. I did complain to the concierge about this bad mouthing of RO. He told me to please write a letter about our experiences with RO after we left SP which I subsequebntly did.As it turned out, we were able to get our passports the day before, as I recall.

 

We hung around where we thought the gangplank was going to be.A last minute switch had us scurrying around the ship to find the real gangway. It was quite tense but funny. I think there were around 20 or so of us who had arranged for private tours and who were determined to get off the ship asap. We eventually were able to leave the ship before the big tours and got through the Russian Immigration quickly. Our RO tour guide was there and things went well from there on.

 

RO was fantastic. The fellow who was running the excursion desk was not. So my advice to you is to make your request to get those passports and keep up the requests often. To wait for the AM of arrival would make your disembarcation early very risky. Hope this helps.

[Phoenix cruiser]

I understand officials of Ocean read these boards. Since one can tell by reading the Baltic Ports message board that Red October and Denrus are extremely popular, why does Oceana attempt to thwart the enjoyment of their passengers over this? Yes, I know they want you to buy their tour package. But since they must also know they can't stop us from using other alternatives, why give themselves a black eye? Anyone from Oceana care to repsond?

[peggyann]

I'll be watching to see if there is a response. I was furious with Destination services over this. If we as well travelled and fairly bright folks care to do preliminary research and come up with a great alternative to the very big and pretty pricey ship's tours, why should our decisions be questioned. The fellow in charge actually made it sound as if our safety would be in peril, that we would be made to shop, shop, shop at RO stores. And that this RO thing was "getting out of hand". All this in a public forum!

 

It made for embarrassment for us who were so happily anticipating our private tour. Even folks who were not going on RO or Denrus were angry with these statements as they seemed a blatant attempt to get us to join the ship's tours. I hope that this guy, who was hired as an independent service provider to the Baltic cruise, is no longer doing this work or has been made to see the errror of his ways. RO and Denrus both have outstanding reputations, and well deserved. We were thrilled with the whole experience, from initial contact to final good-by's to the guide.

[jfb128]

The experience that Peggy Ann described was contrary to what we experienced on our Baltic cruise . We were able to get our passports the night before we docked in St. Petersburg. We had a party of 8 that used Red October and we went down before the ship's tours and with our passport and the Red october ticket went thru the Russian gendarmes long before the ship's tours. Oceania never tried to slow us up or interfere with our plans. In fact as I recall there were two other groups using Red October that also was in the same situation as us.

[peggyann]

Glad that your group had no problems. When was your cruise? We were on the June 1, 2004. Actually, there would have been no issue with us at all, had the Destination gentleman not made the remarks that he did. It created in our group an uneasiness about Oceania's attitude toward the RO tours. As I said, we did get our passports the night before. Perhaps the incident on our trip effected a change in attitude.

[Phoenix cruiser]

jfb128, you give us hope that we won't face bureaucracy on board the Regatta before we disembark at St. Petersburg. Thanks for your quick response. :)

[Phoenix cruiser]

As a follow-up, are there different requirements for those using the ship's tour? Do they not need to show a passport while those using Red October, Denrus, Amex, and private tours do? Seems like a nightmare if all the ship's passengers needed to retrieve their passport at once.

[jfb128]

Peggy Ann- Our cruise was the next cruise after yours in June, 2004. I believe we were in St. Petersburg on June 20, 21 and 22 give or take a day.

We had friends on a July cruise who told us their experience was similar to ours. Maybe your problems resolved future issues for the rest of us.

[Phoenix cruiser]

It will be interesting to see how this plays out since this was just posted on the Yahoo Oceana Forum. Tim Rubacky is Manager of Public Relations for Oceana.

 

"I have received the following information from Oceania. This is the final word on this subject and will explain their procedures.

 

My thanks goes out again to Tim Rubacky.

 

Laura

 

" Regatta's Pursers must be in possession of all passports for clearance of the ship. When government officials board the ship in any port of call, all of the guest and crew passports are made readily available. Should they decide they want to physically examine a particular passport and it is not there or just a copy, the clearance of the ship may be delayed.

 

 

 

Should guests wish to or need to bring their passports ashore in a port of call, they may request them from Reception, but only after the ship has been cleared by the authorities. And passports must be returned to Reception prior to departure so they vessel may be cleared once again. "

[Zimmy]

We were on the Regatta last summer, and in St Petersburg on August 1st. Our passports were made available to us the night before. There was an announcement made that they were available for pick-up between certain hours. There was no problem picking them up, and no wait. We departed the ship for our private tour with Esperance on our own schedule, and no attempt was made to interfere with our plans, discourage us, or delay us. Everything was handled very well by Oceania.

[shoshona2]

We were on the Regatta August of 2003 and our passports were available for pickup the night before also. We had a tour with Red October and we had no trouble leaving the ship with the first people off. We had to wait for the people going on Oceania's Moscow tour since they had a plane to catch. Our RO tour guide met us right past the Russian immigration officials.

 

Sheila

[Phoenix cruiser]

I appreciate all the positive feedback. I have heard so many good things about Oceana, it is nice to know they are accomodating onboard in spite of what their PR guy says about passports. Happy Cruising!:)

[warburg]

We are booked on the July 20 Regatta sailing. After reading all the favorable posts about Red October on this thread, we would like to book them for Saint Petersburg. However, I don't know how to get in touch with them, and a web search yielded nothing. Can anyone help?

[Rickey 88]

We are booked on the July 20 Regatta sailing. After reading all the favorable posts about Red October on this thread, we would like to book them for Saint Petersburg. However, I don't know how to get in touch with them, and a web search yielded nothing. Can anyone help?

 

 

You can find all the information you may need here:

 

http://www.redoctober.spb.ru/RedOct800x600/index.htm

 

Happy Cruising.....

[Princess Di]

When you go to the Baltic Ports Forum, there is a Banner (in Red) at the top of Every page. :eek:

Clicking on the Banner is a direct Link to

R-O in the U.S. ;)

[warburg]

Thanks very much. I appreciate the help.